South Carolina redistricting: Dems slam GOP colleagues amid rush to pass gerrymander

South Carolina lawmakers kicked off their special session Friday to redraw the state’s congressional district, with the explicit goal of dismantling its lone majority-Black district. 

What’s typically a months-long process that happens once a decade is now being rushed by the legislature in a matter of weeks, as South Carolina’s June 9 primary election rapidly approaches. 

The legislature adjourned their regular session Thursday without passing a new congressional map — or an agreement to reconvene for a special session for redistricting. But the break didn’t last long: Gov. Henry McMaster (R) immediately called lawmakers back for a special redistricting session to take up redistricting.

Now the timer is ticking for lawmakers to come to an agreement to delay the state’s primary and pass a proposed gerrymander. If the legislature can’t pass either measure before early voting starts May 24, then the state’s current map and election schedule will stay in place.

During the first day of the special session Friday, Rep. Jay Jordan (R) introduced the timeline for delaying the state’s primary: The new filing period for candidates would be June 1-5, with the primary election taking place August 18. 

“This path is certainly a doable path,” Jones said during Friday’s session, “Is it a tight turn? I think that’s fair to say.”

But Jones couldn’t give an exact deadline for the legislature to pass a bill delaying the state’s primary in order to meet the proposed timeline for the South Carolina Election Commission to prepare election materials. 

“The sooner we can give them that direction and that product, the better off,” he said.

The first day of the special session didn’t see any movement on either delaying the primary or a new map. Instead, Democratic members of the House of Representatives took to the floor, one by one, to excoriate their GOP colleagues for ramming through a rushed, sloppy redistricting process as some military and overseas voters have already cast their ballots in the primary. 

“A lot of people think this is just about some maps,” Rep. Justin Bamberg (D) said. “It’s not just about some maps, it’s about the integrity of the process of elections in the state of South Carolina.”

And Democratic lawmakers particularly criticized Republicans for kowtowing to President Donald Trump. After the Supreme Court gutted a key Voting Rights Act protection that had long shielded Black voting power from racial gerrymandering, Trump pressured a number of Southern states to rush to redraw maps before the midterms. 

“You should be ashamed of yourselves,” Rep. Heather Bauer (D) said to her Republican colleagues. “The ease of which you bend the knee to your lord and savior Donald Trump, I just don’t understand… it’s not fair to South Carolinians.”